Jan Merrill Athlete

Janice ("Jan") Melbourne Merrill (born June 18, 1956 in New London, Connecticut) is a retired female middle distance runner from the United States. She was the dominant long distance runner of the middle 1970's, a notable front runner, her uniform with the large "M" on her chest would usually break away to an insurmountable lead in domestic meets. She was equally untouchable in self-promotion or dealing with the media, often deferring to her coach, Norm Higgins. At various points in time she held the American record in the women's 1500 metres during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 3,000 metres and 5,000 metres. She lost other record opportunities because the only times she could get a decent race in the United States was against men. She won the U.S. title at 1500 metres twice outdoors, 3000 metres 4 times, twice in the indoor mile, twice in the indoor 2 mile and twice in Cross Country. Merrill is now married hyphenating her name with Morin, and is an assistant coach at Rutgers University.